War news glorious! The Kaiser is in a serious predicament. What will he do? Abdicate?

Just as Grant Willard became jaundiced and was shipped off to hospital in Paris, the American Expeditionary Force launched its biggest offensive of World War I--the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. It was the final big push--a coordinated offensive with the British and French armies across the entire Western Front that would lead to German capitulation in less than two months.

For the Americans, the plan was to advance towards the north with the Meuse River on its right flank and the rugged hills of the Argonne Forest on its left. Their objective was the rail hub at Sedan; once that was in Allied hands, the Germans would not be able to shift reinforcements via rail between sectors of the Front.

The Americans stepped off on September 26 and the going was slow and bloody. Grant missed the first phase of the offensive, but his comrades advanced with the armies.


Tuesday, October 1, 1918:

War news glorious! Bulgaria has signed an armistice and we have control of the railroads. German reinforcements make no difference now. Allied forces in France still progressing. St. Quentin not officially reported taken, but the troops are progressing north of the city so it must be in our hands. Stubborn resistance in the Argonne against the Americans, but still they press on.

Jack Swain called on me today. He is in for his Distinguished Service Cross. Says our section is in the Argonne. Wish I could get out of here.

Jack and I went walking this P.M. A letter has been received at our section asking that 5 men be sent in to an officers’ training school. Jack said it had been kept pretty much on the q.t. and that Kendrick had spoken of Swain, McGuire and myself as three possibilities. Jack feels the same as I do about the thing. He’s sorry the thing ever came up. It’s going to mean dissension in the ranks and hard feeling.

Wednesday, October 2:

Have been thinking hard about this officers’ training school and have come to the decision that I would be a fool if I didn’t embrace the opportunity of going if it came my way. I have a hunch, however, that nothing will be said about the letter to the section while we are busy at least. The section is bound to be broken up one way or another. Our Lieut. is too good a man to stay long in his present capacity and Kendrick is sure to be given a commission and taken away from us. We couldn’t get another pair like them and it would mean applications for transfer in all directions for the gang.

Wonder if the section is working hard. Great news in the papers. English and French still press on. Americans fighting hard in the Argonne with slow but steady progress. If we can once get Fritz out of the woods and hills, where he has spent the past 4 years, back up on to the plateau we will have him at our mercy.

Thursday, October 3:

Jack came out about noon and [we] went up in the Grande Roue (Ferris wheel). It’s a tremendous affair built in America and shipped to Paris for the world’s fair in 1900. One doesn’t realize what a mammoth place Paris is until he gets a bird’s-eye of the city. Then we walked via the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadéro and sat on the large stone veranda overlooking the gardens and the river and drank beer and talked war.

Wilhelm II (1859-1941)

It surely does look as though Germany were about on her last legs. The Kaiser is in a serious predicament. What will he do? Abdicate? If so whom will replace him. Precedent calls for the Crown Prince, but to put him in would mean more war and the ultimate destruction of the whole German nation. How about his second son Prince Frederick? He’s not of the military cast and more of and for the people. He’s the man who could lift the Kaiser out of an awful hole if he could be given the power to do so.

Friday, October 4:

Jack gets decorated tomorrow A.M. I can’t see the ceremony because I must see the doctor. Major Whitney is back from his tour of the front just having been made a major and wants to see every man tomorrow morning. Stayed around the reading room fire most all day.

When I went down for dinner a boy was sitting at the end of the table who looked very familiar to me. He kept looking at me and I at him until finally I burst out with, “Pardon me, but aren’t you Gourgey?” He said he was and addressed me by my name. He came over on the Chicago and became a very great friend of Miss Mullen’s. He’s a musical genius and plays the piano excellently. He specializes in operas. He was with the Field Service and signed up in the new organization. Is now at Neuilly recovering from piece of shrapnel in the leg and one in the lung. After dinner we got him to play for us and now Mr. Sleeper is going to try to get him released from Neuilly to come to rue Raynouard. Hope he succeeds.